The last time England played at the European Championship in 2017, Leah Williamson hadn’t even made her senior Lionesses debut.
At the World Cup in France three years ago, she played just six minutes as a substitute.
On Wednesday, the Arsenal centre-back will make her first major tournament start in England’s 2022 European Championship opening match against Austria at Old Trafford. She will do as captain.
Leah Williamson will make her first major tournament start in England’s Euro 2022 opener
Williamson may not have been the most obvious choice to wear the bracelet in the absence of Steph Houghton, who has not been chosen in Sarina Wiegman’s latest roster of 23 women, having only recently returned from an Achilles tendon.
The Milton Keynes-born star is just 25 years old and has 31 senior caps to her name – 12 players in the roster have more, including centurions Jill Scott and Ellen White.
As highlighted, her experience with major tournaments is minimal while she’s not the kind of character who screams and yells on the field. She led the English youth teams, but is not the captain of Arsenal at club level.
However, Wiegman gave her the England captain’s armband when Houghton was injured last fall and Williamson kept the armband when the Lionesses won the inaugural Arnold Clark Cup in March. A month later, she was appointed skipper for the euro.
Following the announcement, Dutch coach described Williamson as “a great leader”, while Houghton described her as “driven”.
She has succeeded Steph Houghton as captain, while the 34-year-old has only just returned from injury
“She leads by example and what you see is what you get,” said Vice Captain Millie Bright. “She is a very mature person, both on and off the field. She is very calm in the way she leads. It was a pleasure to see her lead the team and it was a big moment for her.”
There are similarities between Williamson and Faye White, England’s longest serving captain, who was given the armband in 2002 before taking on the same responsibility at Arsenal, where she spent her entire career.
“She is a very humble person and a player both on and off the field,” White said the Scotsman† “I think sometimes with a captain it’s not just what you do outside of the game, but also how you behave around the team and the media. And I think Leah is great at that, because it’s not an act — that’s just her, and who she is.”
Williamson is not averse to pressure.
In 2015, she took a 96-minute penalty for England under-19 against Norway. Although it sounds much too simple.
The young Lionesses trailed 2-1 and had to equalize to book their place at the European Championship. Williamson repented, only for the referee to rule it out for infringement.
The 25-year-old wasn’t the obvious choice as captain, but she is a calm and determined leader
After the game, UEFA overturned the decision and ordered the penalty kick to be retaken, so that the England and Norway players reunited five days later in unprecedented circumstances.
Williamson stepped up again and scored unnervingly. England went to the Euro.
It would be three more years before she made her senior debut under Phil Neville, having earned her first call-up while Mo Marley – her under-19 coach – was interim boss.
Williamson starred as Arsenal won the Women’s Super League in 2018-19 – their first title in seven years – but they continued to struggle for regular opportunities with England despite consistent calls.
Those six minutes as a substitute at the World Cup came and went, as she replaced Nikita Parris in the eighth finals against Cameroon. After the tournament, Neville admitted he regretted not giving Williamson more playing time because he could see the “emptiness” in her eyes in France.
Her main problem was that England had considerable depth in the center of defence, with Houghton’s and Bright’s first choice being particularly difficult to dismantle.
Neville set out to find a way to fit Williamson into his team, spurred on by the tidal wave of Instagram messages he received from eager supporters desperate for more of the Arsenal star.
Phil Neville was inundated with messages from supporters asking him to play more Williamson
“I’ll screenshot all the messages and send them to Leah,” Neville said. ‘She’s so popular!
“She’s competing in an area where we have some incredible players. I thought she was frustrated at the World Cup and it was a difficult time for both of us because we thought the same.
“When I left the World Cup, I thought long and hard about how we can get this girl on our team. There comes a point in a young player’s development where you can’t physically leave him behind.’
The former Manchester United and Everton defender asked then-Arsenal boss Joe Montemurro to test Williamson in midfield prep.
While the Australian herself didn’t stick with the experiment long term, it gave Neville confidence that she could be used higher up the field. After all, Williamson started out as a midfielder for the Gunners in her early years before being transformed into a tough centre-back.
At the SheBelieves Cup in March 2020, Williamson played at the center of the park twice and was also tried as a right-back.
Despite taking England to the semi-finals of the World Cup, Neville’s reign is not too fondly remembered as he had a poor record against the best teams and was criticized for making the play-off for third place as a ‘ nonsense game’.
Williamson still plays in defense for Arsenal and aims to be ‘the best central defender in the world’
Sarina Wiegman selected the 25-year-old as a midfielder in her first game of last year
But perhaps his greatest legacy is planting the seed for the Lionesses to use Williamson in the middle of the park.
‘She’s got the athleticism, she’s got the physical profile to’ [play as a No.8]Neville said three months before leaving his role. “She has the speed to recover and get back into position right away – similar to Jill Scott, she has a similar profile in that regard.”
Sarina Wiegman selected the 25-year-old as a midfielder in her first game last September – an 8-0 thrashing of North Macedonia – and she has been a mainstay there ever since.
Nevertheless, Williamson is still deployed at the heart of Arsenal’s defense and when she signed a new contract with the Gunners last summer, she declared her goal ‘to be the best central defender in the world’.
There is, of course, a slight irony that Houghton’s injury has freed up a spot for her in the Lionesses’ backline.
Williamson’s double twist in midfield with best friend Kiera Walsh is eagerly accepted
But you don’t have to worry. England aren’t blessed with too many options in midfield, so Williamson’s dual pivot with best friend Kiera Walsh is enthusiastically accepted. She is able to provide a strong defensive shield as well as helping out forward, showing that she is much more than just a central defender turned midfielder.
Meanwhile, on the defense, Bright has forged a new steely partnership alongside Alex Greenwood.
But just when you thought those selections were fixed, there was a reminder that the Lionesses can set up differently. Before their final pre-tournament friendly against Switzerland last week, Williamson fell back into the middle when Wiegman rearranged her backline due to Lucy Bronze’s illness.
That kind of versatility, combined with Williamson’s calm but determined leadership style, could well make her the second England captain after Bobby Moore to lead the country to major tournament glory.